Theory of plasmon decay in dense plasmas and warm dense matters

Abstract

The prevalent Landau damping theory for classical plasmas does not fully explain the Langmuir wave decay in dense plasmas. A dielectric function theory adapted from the condensed matter physics is extended to be applicable for the dense plasmas and warm dense matters. This theory, accounting for the Umklapp process, predicts much higher decay rates than the Landau damping theory, which results in better agreement with the available experimental data obtained from the metals. The detailed calculations are presented for the following four cases: classical plasmas, Maxwellian plasmas, degenerate quantum plasmas, and partially degenerate plasmas.